"Fruit for the sightscreen."

September 2014

Under previous conditions you would expect Steve O'Keefe to be about to issue a Professional Apology for telling chuckers to piss off, but given the current clampdown it would appear players may be freer to speak out.

Then again, it has been suggested O'Keefe has not been picked more often for national honours because he has a tendency to speak out so perhaps he always shoots from the lip:

"I think originally when the laws came in you were allowed zero degrees. They brought in 15 degrees to give blokes that leeway. If you go past it in my mind you've been given a little bit of room and you're going past that 15 degrees you're taking the piss."

"The rules are in place for a reason and all throughout the game guys will try and push the rules to a certain point, but I think once you step over that line you have to pay the price, whatever that is at ICC level. It's not fair, to be honest.

I'm glad that they're not going further with it ...15 degrees is enough. It should be zero, really. You should be trying to bowl with a straight arm."

And yet:

The NSW left-arm orthodox was a teammate of Murali's in the Indian Premier League three years ago and is keen to resume contact with the Sri Lankan, who has been hired by Australia to train batsmen to face spin as well as mentor spinners.

"I worked with Murali when I was at Kochi for six weeks. He was good in that environment because he was playing and you could chat to him and see how he went about his business."

A month ago, after a Test match in Sri Lanka, Ajmal was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action by two Test umpires, one of whom, Bruce Oxenford, is Australian. Ajmal was brought to have his action examined by biomechanists at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, Australia. And now he has been suspended from all cricket, two weeks before Pakistan plays its next Test series – in the UAE, against Australia.

Mind you, I would be keen to have a little wager with perennial AGB fave, Malcolm Knox:

What would be even bigger news is when the law comes down on a bowler from Australia, England or India. Of those so far caught in the ICC's crackdown, all belong to the nations now designated "second-tier". The big test will come when a bowler with a suspect action plays for one of the big three.

Australia has had its dodgy actions too - as my headache in repeating that testifies; Sideshow Roy Symonds is lucky he does not play anymore - but I will eat my bat if an Aussie bowler with an action anything like Ajmal's gets anywhere near the Test team.

To echo Carrot's sentiment: "42° - what the hell?" I thought it was more like 82°. Well, 62°:

"An independent analysis has found the bowling action of Pakistan's offspinner Saeed Ajmal to be illegal and, as such, the player has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect. The analysis revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations."

It's one thing to rail against a rort, it's another to have your railing confirmed.

At this rate if they keep knocking off rank actions, I will have to find something else to complain about. (But I'm sure I'm up to the task.)

South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn has said he hasn't forgiven Australia captain Michael Clarke for what he considered to be a personal sledge during the Newlands Test earlier this year.

The modern rush to spin everything has attempted to obscure the obvious fact that sportsman and women sometimes just don't like each other. And while sporties hating each other is probably sub-optimal, it certainly adds a frisson of excitement to to a contest.

Meg Lanning, the Australian women's captain, will take a big step into a male bastion this summer when she joins the Channel Nine commentary team.

Lanning's commentary will no doubt run into the same static as Kellie Underwood's stint on Ten footy. Some will bag her outright for being a girl - "what would sheeee know" - but many more will try to couch their criticism (envy) in disingenuous terms. "She doesn't read the game," was a common refrain among fellow commentators at assorted media outlets. Really, though, it was a turf war. She had the gig, mates of mates wanted the gig.

Underwood was not my cup of tea, but, how many commentators are? How many read the game? How many commentators tell you something you don't know? There is a dreadful lack of depth in Australian commentary. Underwood was no better or worse than 90% of the other footy commentators. There are maybe half a dozen who stand out, but several dozen more who are mere noise.

Will Lanning be better than Slatts, Heals, Braysh, Tubbs, Sumptuous and the rest of Nine's wacky funsters, suck-ups and shills. All of them showed promise until they were infected by Nine's signature style: oaf. And what of Favelli? He's a fantastic cricket person and talks a lot of sense about the caper, but stick him in the Nine box... wouldn't it be great if Lanning fired up the crusty old grump.

My one caveat would be Lanning's age. She seems young to be talking to the cricket public about cricket. Sexism is a given, 22 invites ageism. But then querulous oldsters are not Nine's target demographic for the Barby Cup.